BSES boosts capacity to meet Delhi's summer power demand

BSES, one of the two electricity distribution companies (discoms) in Delhi, on Thursday said it has increased its transformer capacity massively to tackle the capital's unprecedented power demand in summer, with city temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius.

"During 2016-2017, BSES discoms invested a capex of around Rs 700 crore (BRPL Rs 448 crore, BYPL Rs 252 crore) to strengthen the infrastructure and adding a transformation capacity of around 600 MVA (mega volt ampere)," a BSES release here said.

"During the year, BSES discoms also installed over 670 transformers and augmented capacity of scores of others to boost the network capacity," it said.

"Delhi's power demand touched 6,526 MW a few days earlier and is by far the highest peak power demand recorded in any city in the country," it added.

Listing the major challenges for its discoms here, BSES cited extreme heat causing very high power demand and power thefts, as among the reasons for occasional power outages.

"Due to extreme heat and very high power demand round the clock, at times the electricity network does not get sufficient time to cool down. This stresses the network and at times leads to local faults," it said.

"Unprecedented load growth in high power theft areas lead to trippings and 'burn out' of distribution equipment," it added.

--IANS

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